Alone Again (Naturally)

LETJOG E2W – Day 30: Monday 13 May – KILMACTHOMAS to DUNGARVAN (14.8 miles)

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday warm sunshine, today horizontal driving rain and mist, making the first four hours of my trek a trudge in the wet, cocooned and blinkered within my waterproofs. I thought, as I left Cian and Nicola this morning, that I had enjoyed the full Irish experience over the weekend, but of course there was a missing component – the rain! I now feel suitably initiated.

As for my broken nordic pole, there was no spectacular ‘event’; the carbon fibre shaft simply snapped as I was poling on the flat, I guess as a result of some repetitive strain injury. At just about the time of this calamity I passed the 500-mile mark on this LETJOG E2W trek, and I estimate, all told, that the poles have accompanied me on somewhere in excess of 3,000 walking miles over the three years of my various ‘challenge’ treks, plus many regular walks at home. So they have been fine servants. The pole is a ‘special order’ fixed-length piece of kit, so I cannot replace it immediately – fortunately so as far as this current walk is concerned its loss is clearly not a show-stopper, but I shall miss it over the remaining days. Anyway, I hit the trail solo again this morning – my phone/camera stashed deep within my rucksack, keeping dry, for most of the time: but I did manage to get a few pictures of my walking day.

Showered and rested I emerged this evening from my digs to blue skies and a high tide, that rather transformed the views from the quayside over the harbour area.

This morning marked the last occasion on this LETJOG E2W trek that I have any company planned, so I am indeed alone again, naturally, for the duration now. That is not to say that I won’t continue to meet a great many friendly and interesting people along the way – that is the very much the nature of this adventure, and particularly, it seems, here in Ireland. Booking accommodation is not straightforward though and options are often limited, but I am now covered for the next few days as far as Cork. An early night beckons for the excitement ahead!

My Blog heading today ‘Alone Again (Naturally)’ follows the song title of a 1972 introspective ballad, written and performed by Waterford-born singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan. The song had great commercial success worldwide (including in the US, where it sold over two million copies and spent six weeks at Number 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart). Originally not included on his 1972 album ‘Back To Front’, the number was later added onto re-issues replacing another of O’Sullivan’s best known hits, ‘Clair’.